Tuesday, September 1, 2009

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Following in the footsteps of United States Congress members all over the country, Santa Barbara’s Rep. Lois Capps will hold an informational session on the efforts to reform the nation’s health care system. The meeting will be held at the First United Methodist Church, this Wednesday, September 2, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Capps, a former nurse, is an avowed supporter of America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. “Reforming our broken health insurance system is a cause that I’ve been extensively involved in throughout my life,” she said in a recent press release, “and I am strongly supportive of our reform legislation:.I look forward to continuing this conversation with my constituents.”

The event is being co-hosted by the church’s pastor, Hillary Chrisley, and other members of Santa Barbara’s faith community, and is supported by the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara’s education fund. The evening will be moderated by onetime Santa Barbara mayor Hal Conklin, and will also feature health care experts Dr. Edward Bentley and Joyce Ellen Lippman, who is the director of the Area Agency on Aging. The speakers will field questions from the public, who are invited to the event free of charge, but should be aware that seating is limited to 210 people, with priority given to those who live within the 23rd Congressional District. No political placards will be allowed inside the church.

The First United Methodist Church is located at 305 East Anapamu Street in downtown Santa Barbara.

Sorry Beach Livin', you're in the minority on this one. You can go and yell and scream and make an even bigger fool of yourself than last time; but the MAJORITY of Americans voted FOR a public option in healthcare last November when we elected Obama, and no amount of willful ignorance, dishonesty, racism or other Fascistic behavior will stop us.You can keep your private insurance, you can suffer a long horrible death for all I care, but you have NO RIGHT to deny or jeopardize anybody else's health, especially a child's because of ignorance, greed and or any other excuse.Tell us BeachLivin', how's the weather down there in the dustbin of history?Most Sincerely,Ken Volok

PSI have private healthcare insurance; I don't mind chipping in to help others. If you have a problem with this you can risk going to jail for tax evasion or move to a small government country like Somalia or Afghanistan.

"Our bill will not force anyone into a government-run insurance option." EXCUSE ME, but SUBSIDIZING government-controlled health insurance with OUR TAX DOLLARS will lower the price of those policies such that private plans become non-competitive financially. •HR 3200, Sec. 113, Pg. 21-22 mandates government AUDITS of employers' that choose to self-insure their workers. Sound like fun to you? •HR 3200, Sec. 313, Pg. 149, Lines 16-23 - Employers with payroll of $400,000 and above who do not provide the "public option" will pay 8% tax on all payroll. Sound like more fun??

"Our bill will end the rationing of care ...and ensures that decisions are made between you and your health professional."•HR 3200, Sec. 123, Pg. 30, Establishes a "Health Benefits Advisory Committee" which decides what treatments and benefits are provided. IE, a "Health Choices Commissioner" chooses which treatments your doctor can give you.

"Our bill does not require or encourage euthanasia, nor does it require any end-of-life decisions." •HR 3200, Sec. 1233, Pg. 425, Lines 4-12 - Government mandates Advance (Death) Care Planning consultation. •HR 3200, Sec. 1233, Pg. 429, Lines 1-9 - An "advanced care planning consult" will be used as patient's health deteriorates or when the government determines you have a "life-threatening illness." DOES THAT INCLUDE pneumonia? Heart attack? Stroke? Swine-flu? •HR 3200, Sec. 1233, Pg. 429, Lines 10-12 - "Advanced Care Consultation" may include an order for end-of-life plans. •HR 3200, Sec. 1233, Pg. 429, Lines 13-25 - The government WILL SPECIFY which "health professionals can write an end-of-life order." NO MENTION of consultation with you, your family, or your physician. (In other words ANY doctor--or PA--of their choosing can write the order!)

"Our bill does not cover people who are in this country illegally."•HR 3200, Sec. 152, Pg. 50-51 - ":all health care and related services ... covered by this act shall be provided without regard to personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services." DO YOU SEE "American citizenship" as a requirement in that language?

Capps supports HR 3200--so the above comments addressed it. But Dr. Dean Edell himself calls ALL these "bills" power grabs. Nothing more than politics as usual EXCEPT this time they do have the POWER to take your own health insurance away from you--but NO, THEY will not have to go on it. WHY NOT?

HR 3200 also cuts BILLIONS from existing programs-which WILL affect seniors.) Then, add 46,000,000 patients (never mind that many are in the country illegally) without adding doctors, and guess what folks. LINES, LINES, AND MORE LINES. RATIONING is inevitable!

And here's how government already makes doctors work from free (and why we'll lose even more of them if nationalized health care - as currently proposed - is enacted.)http://www.epmonthly.com/index.php?op...

One of several blatant falsehoods. As with any health insurance, a doctor can provide any treatment and charge any price for it, but not all treatments and prices are covered by the insurance.

It's hardly surprising that we get these untruths from someone who has repeatedly defended Dick Cheney and torture, writes "You liberal posters really are the useful idiots", and other comments that have required the Independent staff to remove them.

One can also see there what sort of mentality and ethics this person has. As DrDan noted:

"from maximum's nasty references to binky, jonk, river and other thoughtful responders ["ignorant" etc.], it's obvious he's a cyberbully, and don't deserve more serious and decent responses. Thank you river, binky and others who sliced and diced max. He moans a lot and those like him who have to resort to ad hominem insults merely reflect the emptiness of their thinking."

I see Maximum is still spouting "Rightwing Nonsense" and the dribble just keeps coming!Maximum keeps dropping his intellectual and bigoted pants in public exposing the arguments from the pharmaceutical special interest groups to the light of day.Thank you Maximum you make my day when you state you warped points of view. This is clearly the best thing for supporters of Health Care!

The Medical Industrial Complex is so pervasive within the political establishment in Washington that it amazes me any Democrats think that some sort of reform coming out of Washington won't be for the sole benefit of Big Pharma.

If I didn't make very much money, I would rather have healthcare costs come down so that I could afford them than just have the government pay triple the amount that they should be and then loot the economy for the premium that just ends up going to the medical industrial complex. That is destructive to everyone except the Big Pharma big whigs and ultimate the poor and middle class will pay the highest cost as goods and services become less available. That is why socialized medicine is bad, and that is why we need to focus on lowering costs.

The reason costs are so incredibly high is because government decided to corporatize insurance in the 1970s.. now through tax incentives nearly everybody is FORCED into full coverage through their employer. This means nobody actually pays for their care, so there is no price competition. That is what we need to get prices back down to reality, then when medicare and medicaid come in to pay for healthcare they aren't paying double or triple the amount that it should be.. tax payers will be better off, poor people will be better off because they will have more medical services available.

So the solution is to tax corporate insurance, putting it on the same level playing field with individual plans and encouraging healthy individuals to find their own cheaper catastrophic coverage. Then give an offsetting tax break to individuals so that their medical care is still effectively untaxed. Very simple.

Most people who are uninsured are so rich they don't need insurance or they are already qualified for medicaid or they aren't legal citizens. This is one area where the "Republicans" have been right and the progressives have been dishonest.

^^ Some people get caught up with the media hype.. the media attempts to portray people against healthcare reform as racists and nutcases because the people who own the media are for healthcare reform... just as the healthcare industry is for health reform. The media is owned by Big Pharma as well. Big corporations are pretty much the same entity, there's not a whole lot of infighting. That is because they are attempting the same goals which are outlined and discussed at events like the annual Bilderberg meeting, which the media generally does not talk about.. I mean, the media always talks about important meetings with important people, yet they are completely silent on Bilderberg which is the BIGGEST meeting with the most important elitists, politicians, bankers and businessmen in the world... Gee, the media isn't controlled one bit ..... /sarcasm

Please come show Lois that you want the Public Option if we can't have Universal Health Care. If there is no Public Option rates will continue to grow at a rate of better than 10% a yr is that what you want ? Obama promised us change, to prove it he will need to stand strong against those who want mor of the same. Stopping more of the same crap is why we elected him the the Democratic majority. Let's make sure they know that elections indeed do have consequences.

Can somebody explain how socializing healthcare will bring down healthcare costs?? I mean really bring down costs.. for example, right now it costs $XXX.XX for a particular medical service, whereas it will cost less when healthcare is socialized?

Hint: You can't..

If you sold medical services, you would charge what the customer is willing to pay. Right now prices are inflated because of our corporatized healthcare system.. the insurance companies have deep pockets and are willing to pay more for medical services than individuals. In a free market system, people would pay what was affordable and prices would come down closer to the cost of the actual service. You can still have medicaid and medicare for the poor, but you NEED a free market mechanism to keep prices down, and that is what the single payer system will lack and that is why it is a bad idea.